Deuteronomy 14-16

New Life Version

Good and Bad Foods

14 “You are the sons of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or cut the hair from your foreheads because of the dead. ² For you are a holy nation to the Lord your God. The Lord has chosen you to be His own nation out of all the nations on the earth.

³ “Do not eat any hated thing. ⁴ These are the animals you may eat: the bull, the sheep, the goat, ⁵ the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. ⁶ And you may eat any animal that has a parted foot divided in two and that chews its food again. ⁷ But you must not eat of those that chew their food again or have a divided foot: the camel, the rabbit and the rock badger. For though they eat their food again, they do not have a divided foot. They are unclean to you. ⁸ And do not eat the pig, because it has a divided foot but does not chew its food again. It is unclean for you. Do not eat any of their flesh or touch their dead bodies.

⁹ “Of all that are in the water, you may eat anything that has fins and scales. ¹⁰ But do not eat anything that does not have fins and scales. It is unclean for you.

¹¹ “You may eat any clean bird. ¹² But these are the ones you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, ¹³ the red kite, the falcon, every kind of kite, ¹⁴ every kind of raven, ¹⁵ the ostrich, the owl, the sea gull, every kind of hawk, ¹⁶ the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, ¹⁷ the pelican, the vulture that eats dead flesh, the cormorant, ¹⁸ the stork, every kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat. ¹⁹ And all flying bugs are unclean for you. Do not eat them. ²⁰ But you may eat any clean bird.

²¹ “Do not eat anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the stranger in your town, so he may eat it. Or you may sell it to a person from another land. For you are a holy nation to the Lord your God.

“Do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

The Law of the Tenth Part

²² “Be sure to give a tenth part to the Lord of all you plant that comes from your field every year. ²³ Before the Lord your God, at the place He chooses to put His name, you may eat the tenth part of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the first-born of your cattle and your flock. Then you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. ²⁴ If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far away for you to bring the tenth part of all the good things you have received, ²⁵ you should trade it for money. Then tie the money in your hand and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. ²⁶ You may spend the money for whatever your heart may desire, for bulls, sheep, wine, strong drink, or whatever you desire. And there you and those of your house may eat before the Lord and be full of joy. ²⁷ Do not stop caring for the Levite who is in your town for he has no share of what is given to you.

²⁸ “At the end of every third year you should bring the tenth part of that year’s grain into your towns. ²⁹ And the Levite who has no share of what is given to you, and the stranger, and the child without parents, and the woman whose husband has died, who are in your towns, may come and eat and be filled. Then the Lord your God will bring good to you in all the work done by your hands.

The Seventh Year

15 “At the end of every seven years you must do away with debts that are owed. ² This is the way you are to do it: Every man who has loaned money must forget the debt. He cannot make his neighbor and his brother pay it because the Lord has said that all should be forgotten. ³ You may make a stranger pay what he owes, but not your brother. ⁴ Yet there will be no poor among you for the Lord will be sure to bring good to you in the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own. ⁵ But you must listen and obey the voice of the Lord your God. Be careful to do all the Law which I am telling you today. ⁶ The Lord your God will bring good to you as He has promised. You will let many nations use what belongs to you but you will not use what belongs to them. You will rule over many nations but they will not rule over you.

⁷ “In any of the towns in your land the Lord your God is giving you, if there is anyone poor among you, do not let your heart be hard and not be willing to help him. ⁸ Be free to give to him. Let him use what is yours of anything he needs. ⁹ Be careful that there is no sinful thought in your heart, saying, ‘It is almost the seventh year, the time to do away with the debt owed to me,’ so you look on your brother with hate and give him nothing. Then he may cry to the Lord against you and you may be guilty of sin. ¹⁰ Give much to him, without being sorry that you do. Because the Lord your God will bring good to you for this, in all your work and in everything you do. ¹¹ The poor will always be in the land. So I tell you to be free in giving to your brother, to those in need, and to the poor in your land.

¹² “If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he will work for you six years. But you must set him free in the seventh year. ¹³ When you set him free, do not send him away with nothing. ¹⁴ Give him much from your flock, from your grain, and from your wine. Give to him as the Lord your God has given to you. ¹⁵ Remember that you were servants in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God set you free. And so I am telling you today to do this. ¹⁶ But he may say to you, ‘I will not leave you,’ because he loves you and those of your house and gets along well with you. ¹⁷ Then take a sharp tool and put it through his ear into the door. And he will be your servant forever. Do the same with your woman servant. ¹⁸ It should not be hard for you to set him free for he has worked for you six years. He has been worth twice as much as a man paid to work for you. The Lord your God will bring good to you in whatever you do.

¹⁹ “Set apart for the Lord your God all the first-born males among your cattle and your flock. Do no work with the first-born of your cattle. Do not cut the wool from the first-born of your flock. ²⁰ You and those of your house will eat it every year before the Lord your God in the place the Lord chooses. ²¹ But do not kill it and give it to the Lord your God if it is not perfect, such as not being able to walk or see, or anything else wrong with it. ²² Eat it within your towns. Both the clean and the unclean may eat it, as if it were a gazelle or deer. ²³ But do not eat its blood. You must pour it out on the ground like water.

The Passover

16 “Remember the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God. For the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt during the night in the month of Abib. ² Give the Passover gift to the Lord your God from the flock and the cattle, in the place where the Lord chooses to put His name. ³ Do not eat bread made with yeast. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, the bread of sorrow, because you came out of the land of Egypt in a hurry. So all the days of your life you will remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. ⁴ For seven days there is to be no yeast around in all your land. And none of the flesh you give in worship on the evening of the first day will be kept through the night until morning. ⁵ You are not allowed to give the Passover gift in any of your towns the Lord your God gives you. ⁶ But give it at the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name. You must kill the Passover gift in the evening when the sun goes down, at the time that you came out of Egypt. ⁷ Make it ready and eat it in the place the Lord your God chooses. Then return to your tents in the morning. ⁸ For six days eat bread made without yeast. On the seventh day there will be a holy meeting to the Lord your God. Do no work on this day.

The Supper of Weeks

⁹ “Number seven weeks. Begin to number seven weeks from the time you begin to cut the standing grain. ¹⁰ Then keep the Special Supper of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a free-will gift. Give as the Lord your God has given to you. ¹¹ Be full of joy before the Lord your God, you and your son and daughter, your men and women servants, the Levite who is in your town, the stranger, the child whose parents have died, and the woman whose husband has died. Be full of joy in the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name. ¹² Remember that you were servants in Egypt. And be careful to obey these Laws.

¹³ “Keep the Special Supper of Tents seven days after you have gathered your grain and wine. ¹⁴ Be full of joy during your special supper, you and your son and daughter, your men and women servants, the Levite, the stranger, the child whose parents have died, and the woman whose husband has died, who are in your towns. ¹⁵ Seven days you will have a special supper to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses. You will be full of joy because the Lord your God will bring good to you in all the food you grow and in all the work you do. ¹⁶ All your males must show themselves before the Lord your God three times a year in the place He chooses, at the Special Supper of Bread Without Yeast, the Special Supper of the First Fruits of the Land, and the Special Supper of Tents. They must not show themselves before the Lord with nothing in their hands. ¹⁷ Every man should give as he is able, as the Lord your God has given to you.

Those Who Judge

¹⁸ “Choose judges and other leaders for all your towns the Lord your God is giving you, among each of your family groups. They must be wise in judging the people. ¹⁹ Be fair and do not show favor. Do not take pay in secret for doing wrong. Such pay blinds the eyes of the wise and causes them to change the words of a good man. ²⁰ Follow what is right, and only what is right. Then you will live and receive the land the Lord your God is giving you.

²¹ “When you make an altar for the Lord your God, do not put beside it a wooden god like the false goddess Asherah. ²² Do not set up for yourself a pillar for worship that the Lord your God hates.